Thy Kingdom Come -- A Message for June 9, 2024

 

Scripture Luke 11:2-4 

 

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 

² He said to them, “When you pray, say: 

“‘Father, 
hallowed be your name, 
your kingdom come. 
³ Give us each day our daily bread. 
⁴ Forgive us our sins, 
    for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. 
And lead us not into temptation.’” 

 

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen 

 

Let us pray. ... 

 

 

Message                                         The Kingdom 

 

May thy kingdom come, and thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 

Every time we gather for worship, we pray the Lord’s Prayer. We conclude our Consistory meetings by praying the Lord’s Prayer. We teach our littlest children to pray this prayer. We may personally pray it every day, perhaps as we conclude other prayers. It is the prayer Jesus taught his followers to pray, and it covers all the points we feel are essential to mention when we talk to God. 

But, when I surveyed people this week and asked them what they think we mean when we say the line, “May thy kingdom come” everyone had different answers that covered different ideas. There is little unison among Trinity’s members about what we mean when we invite God’s kingdom to come – and when you read scholar’s theological interpretations of what this portion of the prayer means, you also find differing opinions and ideas. 

The Prophet Daniel prophesized about the kingdom of God. In the beginning of his book, he interpreted a dream of King Nebuchadnezzar. The dream had warring kingdoms that would conquer each other in the future. At the end of the saga of the kingdoms, Daniel described the final kingdom. Daniel said: “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.” 

The Book of Daniel was written about 2 centuries before the birth of Jesus. In the first century, many Jewish people saw the time in which they lived as the fulfillment of the book of Dainel’s prophesies – their land had been conquered by several larger countries...they were ruled by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, and the Romans. The people of Israel wanted God to assert God’s rule over their land and they wanted the people of Israel to have power to rule over all the people of the earth. They wanted God to break into the world and set things right. 

When Jesus, God’s messiah and God-incarnate, walked the earth, he was asked about the Kingdom of God. Would God take over, cast out the Romans, and rule the people directly? 

In chapter 17 of the Gospel of Luke, it is written: 

Some of the Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the kingdom of God come?” 

Jesus answered, “God’s kingdom is coming, but not in a way that you will be able to see with your eyes.  

People will not say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ because God’s kingdom is within you.” 

Jesus’ answer to the Pharisee’s question about the kingdom of God may have increased the mysteriousness about the kingdom of God....The kingdom is coming, but not in a way that you can see with your eyes. It is within you. 

When we commit to become Christians and follow God, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is within us. We, the followers of Jesus, are connected to each other through the presence of the Holy Spirit in each of us. We up the Kingdom of God on earth right now. We are God’s kingdom, God’s empire, God’s workers here on earth right now. 

We are also striving to have the kingdom of God even more present on earth—so it is here now, and it is coming. If Christians work together to evangelize and teach other people about God and the Christian message, we increase God’s kingdom on earth. Our goal is God’s goal – eventually, we want all people to have a relationship with God. Then, the kingdom of God will be present over all the earth, just as it is present in Heaven. 

The people of the first century may have been disappointed that God was not going to come to earth, sit on a throne, and rule. But, for us, the beneficiaries of the presence of the Holy Spirit, we are blessed by God’s presence within each of us. 

When we pray the words of the Lord’s prayer, we say: “May thy kingdom come, and thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” As followers of God, God’s kingdom is made up of us, God’s Holy Spirit filled people. We are God’s workers here on earth. It is important, therefore, for us to work to live out God’s teachings to us so that we can make God’s world a reflection of God’s kingdom in heaven. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells us to give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, welcome to strangers, clothes for the naked, and visits to the sick and imprisoned. We are called to care for our neighbors, to care for people who are in need and people who are suffering. We are called to do the work of making our world a reflection of God’s kingdom in heaven. 

As the people of the kingdom of God, let us work together to make God’s kingdom more evident to the people of our world. Amen. 

Hallowed by Thy Name -- A Message for June 2, 2024

 

The Scripture Luke 11:2-411 

 

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 

² He said to them, “When you pray, say: 

“‘Father, 
hallowed be your name, 
your kingdom come. 
³ Give us each day our daily bread. 
⁴ Forgive us our sins, 
    for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. 
And lead us not into temptation.’” 

 

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen. 

 

Let us pray... 

 

The Message The Holiness 

This Sunday is the second of our four week focus on the Lord’s Prayer. Last week, we were focused on the opening of the prayer, the greeting where we say: “Our Father.” This week, we are still looking at the first part of the prayer, as we say: “Hallowed by your name.”  

When little children memorize poetry and prayers, sometimes they say what they hear and not what we want them to learn. I have heard kids ask about the Halloween part of the Lord’s prayer in reference to this section. 

The version of the prayer we most often memorize is in Shakespearean or King James English. So, the words we memorize are not words we otherwise use – we do not say “thy” or “art” or “hallowed” when we speak to our friends or family members. Since we do not typically speak using the language of the Lord’s prayer, sometimes we do not really think deeply about what we are saying. 

When we say “hallowed,” we mean holy or respected. “Be thy” means yours. And, “name” means what we call you. So, “Hallowed be thy name” means “God, we respect you, and you are holy.” 

When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we immediately say to God that God is the source of all holiness. We desire to speak to God and approach God with joyful reverence and love. Think about how you interacted with your school principal in kindergarten or first grade...with reverence and love. When Lucia was little, the students, teachers, and moms acted like the elementary school principal was like a movie star or a senator in how they revered him and treated him like a celebrity. We should joyfully approach God with love and respect, with reverence and adoration. Hallowed be God’s name! 

Throughout the Bible, we read many prayers and praises to God. Often, as a portion of the prayer, God is revered and celebrated as the source of all holiness in the universe. When Jesus’ mother Mary was pregnant, she visited her very pregnant cousin Elizabeth. Both women were amazed by their unexpected pregnancies. Mary broke into song after she met Elizabeth. While she was singing, she exclaimed: “...for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.” We revere God and respect God because God has done wonderful things for us and for generations of humanity. 

In parts of the New Testament, the Greek word translated as “hallowed” in the Lord’s Prayer is translated as “sanctified.” To sanctify something is to make it holy. God is holy, and God makes us holy because God gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit. A few weeks ago on Pentecost Sunday, we were reminded that we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. God loves us so much that a part of God is with us all of the time. We are never separate from God because God’s Holy Spirit is with us. 

When I was a child, I felt like this was a little creepy. God was like the song about Santa Claus – “He sees you when you are sleeping, he knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake.” The idea of God watching over me made me feel like every mistake I made was going to be marked down on God’s naughty list. 

But, this simplistic vision of God is not what we mean when we say God is with us. God is with us, and God’s Holy Spirit is within us, to bring us comfort and to assure us in times of stress. God knows we make mistakes, that goes hand in hand with being born as humans. God wants us to take comfort and strength from God’s presence. God wants us to know we are never alone and we are never cut off or separated from God. 

God is the source of what is holy. God is the source of love. God is the source of compassion.  

Jesus wanted his followers to bring to God our joys and our concerns, our pains and our delights. When we talk to God in prayer, we appreciate that God is the source of all that is holy. Yet, God is approachable and God choses to be present with us to guide and assure us as we face the joys and challenges of this life and as we transition to eternal life with God.  

WE thank God for being both sanctified and holy and yet present and approachable. 

Amen.